Pipes Magazine » General Pipe Smoking Discussion

1. 

   loseth
   

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   I was reading in another thread and saw some comment that they had 70 some odd tins of one kind of tobacco stored away. I'm still not sure if this was an joke or legitimate, I nearly soiled myself. I'm fairly new to pipe smoking, new to smoking it more 'seriously,' if you will, and I had no idea people stored away so much tobacco. Then I was just reading in another current thread about someone storing tobacco tins in other containers and keeping a database. I think I am completely ignorant of what kind of hoarders pipe smokers can be!

   But honestly, how big is your stockpile of tobaccos? I have one unopened tin . . .

   Posted 4 months ago #
2. 

   rothnh
   

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   Compared to some, my "stockpile" is rather modest. I have about 12 pounds, total. I do plan to double that by summer.

   Posted 4 months ago #
3. 

   swhipple
   

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   LOL I have one unopened tin myself. I am planning on buying some Escudo to stash away since it's one of my favourites. I haven't found too many others that I'm sure I'll still like well enough to buy a bunch of tins.

   Posted 4 months ago #
4. 

   knightmare
   

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   Having started seriously smoking about a year and a half ago - I don't have many Tins, I normally buy in Bulk. Nightcap Tins doesn't last long in my possession, the thought of storing a tin of that seems like a crime to me.

   But in my collection, I have: (At work so kinda ball-parking it)
   16-18oz Newminster English Orient
   16oz Newminster Ultimate English
   8oz SG Squadron Leader
   8oz PS Bullseye Flake
   8oz PS Proper English
   8oz Dunhill My Mix 965
   8-10oz Sample Pack / Misc 2oz Bags (I call em' Taste Testers) (about 5-6 bags of different stuff)
   5 Tins 1xIrish Flake, 4xDunhill Flake(3 Open, 1 open at home, 2 open at work)

   "May I smoke my pipe as well?"

   Posted 4 months ago #
5. 

   flintlockjohn
   

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   I have been a pipe smoker for a long time, although I don't smoke that much and have gone through lengthy periods where I didn't smoke at all. I usually kept a half pound or so of my favorite tobacco around and reordered when it got low. Lately I have been stocking up; I have about four pounds now and hope to double or even triple that by the end of the year. I am worried that prices are going to skyrocket, and I want to have an ample supply on hand before that happens.

   Posted 4 months ago #
6. 

   samcoffeeman
   

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   Wait till cigrmaster gets a load of this thread. he loves to show off his stash...

   We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
   that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights,
   that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

   Posted 4 months ago #
7. 

   guitarguy86
   

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   I have about 21 different tobaccos, adding up to roughly three pounds.

   Posted 4 months ago #
8. 

   Jud
   

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   Not as big as I would like it to be, but bigger than it was a year ago.
   About 10.5 pounds

   This does not include the current rotation, which is probably another 1.5 pounds.

   Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
   Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close
   Rudyard Kipling

   Posted 4 months ago #
9. 

   lordnoble
   

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   This isn't the first time this has come up... Here are two great threads:

   SHOW US YOUR TOBACCO STASH

   and

   YOUR CELLAR

   Obviously, some members have been doing this for a very long time, others not so much. Don't feel like this is a contest. It's not. Those of us who like to smoke aged tobacco or want to make sure we have the blends we love in the future cellar as much as we can when we can. If that's not how you smoke, there's no reason to stock up.
   YMMV

   -Jason

   The preceding statement is not to be construed as fact, but merely conjecture.
   
   Proud member of the BlackBlood Society

   Posted 4 months ago #
10. 

    Jud
    

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    Well said, Jason.

    Posted 4 months ago #
11. 

    foggymountain
    

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    About 5 years of bulk and 10 years of tins.

    Posted 4 months ago #
12. 

    dragonslayer
    

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    Jesus, I got to stop and think about this truely slipery slope. I've smoked 10,000+ cigars of just about every type over the last 20 years (that's 1.5 a day...so more), and still have a humidor with some specials I'm saving. I've been enjoying my pipe tobacco more these days and with the up coming smack down, building a cellar is a must. Looking at some of yours is just... Well amazing.

    So I'm sitting here ready to place a 5 lb and 15 tin order thinking... Oh this can get out of control easy.

    Craig yeah (OCD)

    “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Patrick Henry

    Posted 4 months ago #
13. 

    rothnh
    

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    Stocking up, if you know what you like, can afford to do it, have or get enough screw-top canning jars, the cool dark place for your cellar, and you don't plan to quit smoking pipes anytime soon, it is certainly a wise move to stock up as much as you can.

    One puffer, in one of those links Lordnoble posted here, is simply doubling up his regular order and maybe a bit extra, slow and steady as he goes -- a year goes by, he has a year or more stocked ahead.

    Posted 4 months ago #
14. 

    mrenglish
    

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    Yep, that is how I started. I would buy two tins, one to smoke and the other to stash. Then when I got serious, I might order 10-20 tins at once. It adds up over time and it will never be cheaper than now.

    Posted 4 months ago #
15. 

    fnord
    

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    Loseth:

    In this current political environment, many of us feel that that taxes and prices on loose tobacco in the US will treble or quadruple in the coming year. I'm doing my best to lay in a pound a month of favorite tobaccos with the odd tin or so thrown in. I'm way late, of course. But a little bit now is much better than nothing on down the road.

    Besides, if the balloon ever goes up, I'll have a semi-valuable bartering cache.

    Fnord

    Posted 4 months ago #
16. 

    rmbittner
    

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    I would buy two tins, one to smoke and the other to stash.

    I'll buy one or two tins of a new-to-me blend, if the reviews are mixed and I don't always love the company's offerings. But if it's a company I tend to love (McClelland, Esoterica, GLPease), then I'll buy 11 tins at a time: one to try now and 10 to cellar.

    Yes, as my recent trade with mrenglish can attest (10 tins of Key Largo), this doesn't always work out perfectly for me. Sometimes a blend I think I'll love just leaves me cold. But that could be for a variety of reasons: maybe the blend needs time in the tin, maybe I'm not in the right mood for it, maybe I haven't figured out how to smoke this particular blend to get the most from it. So it's nice to have tins available for sampling a year or two down the road.

    As I've said elsewhere, though, my stockpiling/cellaring isn't politically or financially motivated in the least. I'm guarding against the loss of favorite blends due to companies going out of business, leaf becoming unavailable, that kind of thing.

    BTW, loseth, I'm currently at 831 tins. (Please don't soil yourself.) Most are 2oz/50g tins, but I have a number of half-pound and pound tins as well. (I never buy bulk.)

    Bob

    Posted 4 months ago #
17. 

    numbersix
    

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    About 5 years of bulk

    Foggy, how do you store these?

    I've been concerned about storing bulk tobacco. I noticed that my aros have dried considerably in about 5-6 mos time even while sealed in mason jars (using caps). I wondered what an aro would be like if stored that way for 5 years...

    I've heard some put a bit of wax on the lid to help keep it better sealed.

    "Be seeing you" —Number Six, The Prisoner
    
    
    

    Posted 4 months ago #
18. 

    flintlockjohn
    

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    rmbittner wrote:

    BTW, loseth, I'm currently at 831 tins. (Please don't soil yourself.) Most are 2oz/50g tins, but I have a number of half-pound and pound tins as well. (I never buy bulk.)

    I am curious as to why you never buy bulk?

    Posted 4 months ago #
19. 

    cigrmaster
    

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    As people have said above, some of us are stockpiling because we see a future of crippling prices and mass discontinuations of our favorite blends. Of course to a new pipe smoker 831 tins seems excessive, but when you break it down, it really is not.

    If a person smokes 4 bowls a day, that equals 9 pounds a year approx, so a 2 bowl a day guy needs 4.5 pounds a year. If you want to smoke for 30 years then that is a lot of tobacco. 30 years from now, prices will be astronomical, hundreds of blends will have been discontinued, and I will be sitting on a gold mine. lol If I am dead then my kids will know what to do with my stash and they will make tons of money. Pipe tobacco believe it or not is a wise investment. I have been selling some 2002 stock that I paid 6.00 a tin for and getting 60.00 on some and at least 50 on the others, break it down and it is a better return than the SP 500, the DOW, any mutual fund.

    To answer the OP's original question, I have approximately 100 pounds in the cellar. I have around 35 pounds of bulk and a little over 600 tins. Most of my favorites come in tins, only 4 of my favorites come in bulk.

    Harris

    Posted 4 months ago #
20. 

    rmbittner
    

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    I am curious as to why you never buy bulk?

    The short answer is that I just don't see the appeal. Personal preference.

    For me, it's easier to cellar in the original tins than mess with dozens of mason jars. And, as Greg Pease noted in a recent "Ask Greg Pease" piece, there are differences. Even a bulk that you get "fresh" from a retailer is already going to taste different from the same blend in a similar-age tin due to the fact that simply bagging a tobacco results in a different sort of aging process than you get from something sealed up in an airtight tin. Some prefer the bulk-bagged variety; I don't.

    I might feel differently if I only smoked several different blends. But my cellar now has close to 100 different blends. For me, tins just fit the bill better.

    Bob

    Posted 4 months ago #
21. 

    flintlockjohn
    

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    Thanks for the reply. I guess the appeal for me is I can get the blends I enjoy at lower cost.

    Posted 4 months ago #
22. 

    cigrmaster
    

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    bob makes a good point about blends being different than their tinned counter parts. I bought a pound of Hamborger Veermaster a few months ago, it was the first time I had ever bought it in bulk, I had always previously bought tins. I noticed a big difference, there were tons of broken flakes, lots of shake and it seemed most of it was a ribbon sort of cut. My tinned version is all nice flakes with no shake. The taste was hard to compare because I am smoking 11 year old stock from tins but the burning qualities I did not like. I decided to just buy the tinned version from now on and for go the bulked one. I know it is more money but it is not that big a difference when you break it down by the bowl.

    The other 3 bulks that I buy that I could get in tins are SG Best Brown, FVF and St James flakes. I tried the tinned versions before I bought the bulks and when I compared the two, there was no difference in the quality of the flakes and how it tasted to me. I loaded up on all three. Buying the tins is also much more difficult except for the Best Brown, the FVF and St James are hardly ever in stock and when they are there are limits. I still bought 20 tins of the Best Brown just to have in the cellar and because at 8.95 a tin( JRcigars), I couldn't resist the price. lol

    Posted 4 months ago #
23. 

    captainsousie
    

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    I have a bit over 2.5 pounds in jars and 6 tins. By Harris' estimate, that makes for about 2 years of stock.

    Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

    Posted 4 months ago #
24. 

    deleon
    

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    As far as i know I have about 4-5 pounds of bulk tobacco in 16 oz jars. 5 tins of Peterson's brands for starters

    Posted 4 months ago #
25. 

    cleidophoros
    

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    This be my stash http://www.tobaccocellar.com/kleidophoros
    3 lbs 8.9 oz total it seems.

    Posted 4 months ago #

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